Johnny Spillane

Johnny Spillane grew up two blocks from Steamboat's Howelsen Hill and fell in love with ski jumping. He was part of a Junior World Championships gold-medal team and became the first American nordic skier to win a gold medal at the Olympics or World Championships in 2003 with the world sprint title...and he's aiming for his fourth Olympics in 2010 in Vancouver.

Early in the 2009 season Spillane was on track for a great results year with a fifth place in Trondheim in December, but struggled later in the second half of the season to finish the way he had started. According to coaches, though, with summer training and renewed dedication to making the Vancouver squad, Spillane is on track for a successful 2010 season.

Spillane's Vancouver journey has been nothing less than impressive, tallying a World Cup win and two fourth place finishes in his campaign for a 2010 Winter Olympic Bid in Vancouver.

Growing up so close to the jumps at Howelsen Hill, Spillane thought jumping was the coolest thing and wanted to try it as soon as he could. He started skiing at 2, but he didn't get serious about jumping until about 11. And it still took him another two years before he got "real" jumping skis. "I just jumped on alpine skis for a long time, sliding off the jump with my alpine skis. I finally started using jumping skis when I was about 13." He skied the second leg - and took the lead for good - for the gold-medal foursome at the 1999 World Junior Championships in Austria and also was part of the silver-medal unit a year later at JWCs in Slovakia.

Dec. 2, 2000 in Kuopio, FIN (49th in sprint, but 22nd the next day in a mass start 10K)

2009 Worlds - 24th in mass start, 16th in gundersen, 19th in gundersen. 2007 Worlds - 20th in individual, DNF sprint. 2006 Olympics - 10th in sprint, 30th in individual. 2005 Worlds - DNC (Injured). 2003 Worlds - Sprint gold, 24th in individual. 2002 Olympics - 32nd in both individual and sprint. 2001 Worlds - 14th in sprint, 32nd in individual. 1999 Worlds - 32nd in individual, 37th in sprint. 1998 Olympics - DNC.

The oldest of three (younger brother and sister)...Brother Sam's hunting and fishing partner; my father (Jim) taught me how to fly-fish - and I collect fly rods...The best cook on the nordic combined team (I own the grill)...Colorado Avalanche fan...Stoked my parents and sister were on hand when I won my gold medal in 2003 in Italy...I've got two English bulldogs, Maynard (a good name for a bulldog) and Hayduke (for Edward Abbey's character)...Addicted to "The Wheel of Time" series of books, but I've also been reading a lot of nonfiction...Motto: The hard work is going to pay off!.